1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic electronic component from which residual carbon may be effectively removed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multilayer ceramic electronic component includes a plurality of stacked dielectric layers, internal electrodes disposed to oppose each other, having each dielectric layer interposed there between, and external electrodes electrically connected to respective internal electrodes.
Multilayer ceramic electronic component have been widely used as components in a mobile communications device such as a computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, or the like, due to advantages thereof such as a small size, high capacity, ease of mounting, and the like.
Recently, as electronic products have been miniaturized and multi-functionalized, chip components have also tended to be miniaturized and multi-functionalized. As a result, there is a need to miniaturize multilayer ceramic electronic components and increase the capacity thereof.
Therefore, a dielectric layer and an internal electrode have been thinned and multilayered through various methods. Recently, multilayer ceramic electronic components including dielectric layers having a reduced thickness and an increased number thereof have been manufactured.
Due to a trend in which an amount of a binder is increased in order to provide strength to a particulated and thinned multilayer ceramic electronic component, it has been difficult to remove residual carbon from the multilayer ceramic electronic component. In particular, in a chip having a high capacity and large size, a region having a large residual amount of residual carbon in the center of the chip after performing a plasticizing process has increased in size.
In the case that the residual amount of residual carbon is large in the multilayer ceramic electronic component, a difference in firing behavior is generated according to a position thereof in the chip, and the difference in the firing behavior may degrade reliability of the multilayer ceramic electronic component, for example, internal electrodes may be disconnected, and the like.